Title: Picture Perfect Epilogue

Author: Seaa (seaa00@yahoo.co.nz)

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: 1x2x1, 3+4

Genre: AU

Archive: FF.net and MediaMiner, as of now. I will be extremely flattered if you want it, just let me know.

Warnings: Attempts at humour? OOC? Sap

Disclaimer: I have never, nor will I ever, own Gundam Wing and all things contained within. I do, however, own this fic, which I have painstakingly typed out from scratch.

Summary: When Duo tires of hopeless date after date after date, he decides to get Quatre, an artist, to draw him a picture of his Mr Perfect. Never would he have thought that Mr Perfect actually existed…

Notes: Feedback is much appreciated and will earn you my never-ending gratitude.

Lots of thanks to Dark Tenchi for the great beta! *glomps*

***

Epilogue

Duo gave his hair one final brush stroke, and deftly plaited it into the customary braid.

"Looking good, Maxwell," Quatre commented from the doorway. Duo grinned.

"Third date, huh," Quatre said, "Very important. Look at you, all dressed up!"

He wasn't *dressed up*, per say, but he did want to look nice. He was wearing a dark blue silk shirt, and form fitting black pants. Quatre was sniffing. "Look at you, all grown up!"

Duo slapped Quatre lightly across the head, and the blond grinned at him. "Glad it's going well for you, Duo."

"Yeah," Duo said, smoothing out his shirt. He narrowed his eyes at Quatre. "Doesn't mean I've completely forgiven you!"

Quatre held his hands up in defence. "Hey, now, I just wanted to wait for the right moment to introduce you two."

"And the right moment was when I was sick and he had been suffering a hellish day?" Though that certainly hadn't shown through when they had been together…

Quatre shrugged. "You guys are so damn stubborn, I wasn't sure if there'd be another chance." He looked at Duo. "You ready to go? I can drop you off at the restaurant on my way to the gallery, if you want."

Duo nodded, giving his hair one last pat. "All set."

***

The waiter had shown him to the table where Heero was already seated. Duo was greeted with a small smile. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," Duo responded, grinning. "You look nice," he mentioned, sliding into his seat across from Heero.

Heero raked his eyes over Duo, sending a small, excited shiver up the other man's spine. "You stole my line," Heero said seriously, catching Duo's eyes.

Duo then realised that it didn't matter that they had only been one three dates, or rather, two and a half, and it didn't matter that he was still debating whether or not to burn the previous pictures of Heero, graciously provided by Quatre. Every worry of the day, every heavy, burden-baring thought just flew straight out of his mind, and there was only him and Heero.

Duo had never been happier.

The waiter broke the paralysis that had swept over the both of them, bringing with him a bottle of wine.

"I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of ordering us some wine."

How could he, when Heero was staring at him that way? "No, it's fine." Duo beamed. "I have faith in your taste."

Heero chuckled slightly. "Always a nice thing to know."

The waiter poured the wine while they were selecting their meals, Duo selecting his with ease. He had already spotted his favourite dish on the menu, and it lay comfortably between the so-cheap-that-it's-uneatable and the ordering-that-will-mean-bread-and-water-for-the-next-week price range.

Duo gave his order, and Heero did the same mere moments later, and soon they settled comfortably into a conversation that took no effort at all.

There were no awkward moments, no great silences, no worrying that he would say something stupid.

Duo wondered if it was because he felt like he already knew Heero, in a sense. If that was true - well, he should have gotten Quatre to draw him a perfect person sooner.

But better late then never, he thought, laughing at something Heero said.

The guy was definitely worth the wait.

***

Duo had done the stupidest thing he could have ever done during a harmless conversation about computers. Heero had been listing the qualities of his brand new laptop - the ultra fast modem, the large memory space, the DVD player that came with it - and Duo had gone and blurted it out.

"I got it just last week," Heero had been saying, in that voice Duo loved. "Trowa helped me seal the deal on it, it isn't even really out on the market yet."

"Mmm," Duo had said, whilst staring into Heero's eyes. Then: "I love you."

It took him something between two to five seconds to realise exactly what he had said, and another three or so to quench the urge to stab the soup spoon into his eye, and by then, it was much, *much* too late.

So now he was debating whether it would be more profitable to: a) meet Heero's eyes, b) run away, very far away, c) actually stab the soup spoon into his eye, or d) pass it off as a joke.

"Duo?" It had taken an incredible amount of effort and will power to look at the man. "Are you serious?"

He nodded numbly, thinking with great horror that he was exactly like all those wimpy girls he had dated - and hated dating. Determined to change that, he laughed, looking straight at Heero.

"Sorry about that," he chuckled, rubbing the back of his head nervously, "Didn't mean to blurt that right out, y'know? It just sorta flew out. No big deal, right?"

"But you meant it."

"Yeah, I did, but of course, you know-"

"Duo." He stopped. Heero smiled slightly, tilting his head. "I… Well, that's always nice to hear," he said. "Most of the time," Heero added as an afterthought, startling Duo. "Oh, no, not you," Heero hastened to clarify. "No," he repeated, "It was a very, very nice thing to hear from you."

Duo finally realised that those silly swooning maidens in romantic novels did have a point after all. Especially if their Prince Charming looked anything like the guy sitting in front of him.

"So," Duo said, trying to be flippant about it and thinking that he succeeded rather well, "Is there a chance I'll be getting to hear it back?"

Heero sent him a - oh, it really was! - smouldering glance that made Duo want to scream with excitement.

"Maybe," he said, but it was all he didn't say, and all his eyes were saying that would give Duo enough material to write his own romantic novel - with a few twists, of course.

And of course, the night was still very young…

***

Duo didn't even bother to ask. He had simply unlocked his door, stepped in, and pulled Heero in after him.

"Coffee, tea or me?" he asked, grinning at the other man and striking a pose.

Heero gripped his wrists firmly, but carefully, pulling him until they were flush against each other. He moved so his mouth was over Duo's ear and whispered, his breath wonderfully warm, "I'll have my Duo with sugar, but hold off the milk, please." Duo smiled, but Heero wasn't done. "Are you going to keep me awake all night long?"

Duo levelled him a smouldering glance of his own. "Depends how much of me you want," he murmured, then leapt deftly away from Heero's searching arms to wander over to the kitchen.

He started to shout something, but Heero's warm arms slid around his waist, wrapping Duo in a cocoon of satisfaction.

"Whatcha say to forgetting about the coffee?" Duo asked, setting down the mug.

"And go straight to my serving of Duo?" Heero nipped at his neck. "I have no problems with that."

Duo found himself being steered to his bedroom, but he wasn't about to kick up a fuss. They were tumbling onto the bed, and Heero was trailing kisses down his trembling stomach, up his right arm. He was dropping feather-light kisses across Duo's collarbone, unbuttoning the top three buttons of the braided man's shirt, leaving Duo perfectly content to let him take charge if he felt so inclined.

Heero was reaching for the tie on Duo's braid, and he pulled it off, wrapping his hands in Duo's hair. Duo reached for his head, pulling him down, sealing their lips in an urgent, fiery kiss.

He tilted his neck to give Heero better access to his neck - a silent demand for more. Heero was drawing closer, his breath warm and welcoming - and he stopped.

"Heero," Duo groaned, "what-?" He bit his lip as soon as he saw what had caught Heero's eye.

The portrait - the original one, as it happened - was sitting innocently upon his bedside table. Heero was moving to sit up, still looking at it intently.

Damn it!

"Heero?" Duo ventured. His mind was still foggy, and he did not want to have to explain himself; to have to persuade Heero that he was *not* an insane stalker type person.

"Honest, there's a good reason, and please don't be mad, cuz I-"

But Heero's lips were over his, warm and welcoming, and Duo relaxed and took it as a good sign.

"Mad?" Heero rumbled, "No, not really. A little-" he ran his hands up Duo's stomach, "surprised, maybe," he nuzzled, cat-like, into the hollow at the base of Duo's neck, "and maybe, even-" his lips drifted down, along the arch of Duo's shoulder, "a little honoured."

"Tha-that's good," Duo managed, or at least, he said something along those lines. He was completely lost. Heero was leaving a blazing trail of warmth behind; every inch of skin he touched was set afire.

"It is," the cobalt eyed man caught Duo's lips again, before he lifted up and gave the other brunette's bottom lip a quick lick, "isn't it, Duo."

Duo's shirt was completely open - maybe Heero had unbuttoned it, maybe the pesky buttons had simply fallen off, either way, Duo didn't care.

"We are going to talk about this later," Heero murmured, and Duo didn't doubt him. But now wasn't later, and Heero didn't seem quite as lost as Duo was feeling.

Determined to see the other man's eyes clouded with desire, determined to set him afire too, Duo attacked him with renewed fervour.

And after that, they settled into an evenly matched, glorious and completely satisfying routine that left them both dazed and extremely, exceedingly happy.

And Duo was left with no doubt as to exactly how Heero felt about him.

***

"Duo?"

The mentioned man blinked groggily, and gave Heero a stunning smile. "Mornin', lover."

Heero smiled. "Sounds nice," he said.

"Very," Duo agreed.

"But we have to talk about that picture of yours."

Duo pouted. "Do we really, because I think that we've discovered lots of alternative things that we can do with our time…"

"Duo!"

"I seem to remember you saying that a little bit louder last-" Heero darted down, cutting of the end of Duo's sentence, but when he caught sight of Heero's face, he was pleased to note the slight reddish sheen across the man's cheeks.

"Duo…"

"All right, all right," he surrendered. "Look, there's really nothing to tell. I was just feeling a little… hopeless, with all this… love stuff. And I happened to mention to Quat that it would be nice if I could have just an image of my Perfect Guy to hold on to. And there was this guy at the bar once, and he had these amazing eyes, and I-"

Heero was staring at him.

"I… didn't really need to say that. Heero, don't, I mean, there's no one else, and you don't need to feel threat-"

"At the bar?" Duo nodded. "So that *was* you," Heero mused, looking a little far away. "I thought so, because of the braid…"

"Me…? That… was you? At the bar? 'Screw'? On that Sunday? St… staring at me?"

"Yes to them all," Heero said, smiling slightly. "So I suppose I don't need to feel threatened, though I am glad to hear that there's no one else."

"That all works out pretty nicely, huh?" Duo laughed.

"Anyhow, I saw you, and I just happened to describe the picture that I built up around his - your - eyes. And then Quatre was done, and he had drawn this amazing picture, and there you were.

"You had me completely and totally crazy. I was positive I was going insane, I mean, I thought you were a picture! A damned fine picture, but still…" Duo sighed. "I just couldn't *not* look at you." He looked up. "Do *you* think I'm insane?"

Heero chuckled. "Perhaps just a little, but only in a good way."

But before Duo could analyse exactly what he meant by that, Heero started tickling him. Which led to other things.

Other very, very nice things.

*Fin. 27 March 2003*

***

End Note: The ending's awkward. Sorry. It was that or 'happily ever after' and I really wasn't that desperate. Also, I'm playing around with the idea of a companion piece, with Heero's POV, but I really have no promises. The muse can be pretty silent when it feels so inclined. There's also a possibility of a 3+4 prequel, so who knows? Thoughts? Feedback? Please.